Japan pledges more vessels to Vietnam amid South China Sea tensions
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Tokyo (dpa) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday that his country will provide more patrol ships to Vietnam amid growing tensions in the South China Sea.
The premier made the announcement at a meeting with Nguyen Phu Trong, the visiting general secretary of Vietnam's Communist Party, who arrived in Tokyo Tuesday for a four-day trip.
Trong said he and Abe "shared concerns about the complicated situation in the South and East China seas," referring to China's massive land reclamation work and building of military facilities in the area.
Reports earlier that day said that China appeared to be building an airstrip in the Spratly archipelago, a disputed region with overlapping claims by Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.
Trong called for the peaceful resolution of maritime disputes.
Last year, Japan agreed to provide six patrol ships to help the South-East Asian country to bolster its maritime security.
China claims nearly all of the South China Sea, including small islands that are hundreds of kilometres from its southern coast.
A group of uninhabited islets in the East China Sea are claimed by both Japan and China. The Japanese-administered Senkaku islands are known as Diaoyu in China, and Tiaoyutai in Taiwan, which also claims them.
On Tuesday, Abe also pledged that Japan will extend 100 billion yen (833 million dollars) in loans for Vietnam to boost its infrastructural development.
